


The Evolution of Kelpians

by Perfect_Square



Series: Kelpians [2]
Category: star trek discovery
Genre: Kelparas, Kelpian, Kelpian biology, Kelpian culture, Kelpiens, Other, kelpien
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-04-26 12:31:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14402190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perfect_Square/pseuds/Perfect_Square
Summary: Kelpian representatives describe their species as having developed in a strict hierarchy of predator and prey chain as opposed to the complex food webs associated with other federation species habitats of origin.





	The Evolution of Kelpians

Kelpian oral tradition reveals a unique and troubling dichotomy of predator and prey species. As this phenomenon had not, prior to the work of our research team, been observed by federation scientists, we must highlight it's importance both scientifically and culturally. 

Kelpians are sentient aliens, as are all federation species, but they are also the progeny and legacy of factory farmed creatures. Our research suggests that the ancestors of Kelpians that had yet to develop the distinct threat ganglia, the intelligence, and language of the modern species, were one of many prey species that lived on the Kelpian home-world. Yet, they were the favored farm animal for the other native sentient species the Kelparas. The Kelparas, a distinctly carnivorous species, saw no need to maintain ecological diversity on their homeworld, and while they industrialized they monopolized the Kelpian-home-world with their institutions and their farms. Eventually, a mono-culture of Kelparas, Kelpians, and the select plants needed for Kelpian life developed. 

Scientific literature from the now-abandoned Kelpara libraries and institutions state that while Kelparas maintained the ability to pick off individual Kelpians at will from outside their large enclosures, Kelparas preferred to hunt Kelpians inside the enclosure. This was due to both their genetic drives as a predator species and a cultural heritage that stigmatized those who could not hunt for themselves. Thus proto-Kelpians became exposed to a specific type of natural selection. 

That is there was no shortage of food for the Kelpians; therefore there were no selective pressures against higher cost biological processes like intelligence and telepathy--and at the same time that intelligence and that telepathic ability to sense threats were distinct advantages telling proto-Kelpians to hide and flee even before Kelparas emerged into their enclosure. 

The selective pressure eventually produced the fully formed threat ganglia of the modern Kelpian. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts/headcanons on the energy-cost of telepathy and it's evolution in the Star Trek-verse are owed to PrarieDawn's https://archiveofourown.org/works/13424706.


End file.
